Like most other countries, Singapore was in recession in 2009, but government grants to subsidize the wage bills of employers managed to stave off some retrenchments, keeping unemployment under 5% for most of the year. The S$20.5 billion (about U.S.$13.8 billion) assistance package introduced in January included measures to encourage bank lending and spur employers to send workers for skills training. Thanks partly to these stimulus measures and to a faster-than-expected global recovery, economic contraction in 2009 amounted to only one-third of the level that had been feared at the beginning of the year. Still, the recession prompted a surge in the number of foreign workers applying for permanent residency in a bid to hang on to their jobs, with many queuing overnight outside the immigration office. On the property front, however, prices defied gravity, climbing back to near 2007 peaks and even setting new per-square-foot records in some districts. The price spiral, prompted by low interest rates, an influx of foreigners, and speculative buying, worried citizens and contributed to their unhappiness about the very visible increase in the foreign population in Singapore. More than one in three residents in the city-state were foreign-born in 2009. Responding to citizen concerns, the government pledged to slow down the intake of foreigners, while at the same time it worked to raise labour productivity so that economic growth would not be overly compromised.

On the political front, Singapore witnessed a rare upheaval within its generally placid civil-society scene when a high-profile leadership tussle occurred at the Association of Women for Action and Research. A group of women, mostly hailing from the same church and apparently united in their opposition to homosexuality, ousted the incumbents, whom they accused of leading the organization away from its “original” purpose of advocating gender rights. Following weeks of strident accusations and the mass mobilization of supporters on both sides of the issue for an electoral showdown, the government finally stepped in to establish limits on civil-society activism. At the same time, the government reiterated that an existing law that criminalizes sex between men would not be repealed, although gays would be allowed to lead their private lives.

In April, in an operation that lasted 12 hours at the Singapore General Hospital, a team of doctors in Singapore became the first in Asia to perform a heart-liver transplant. A related issue involved the government’s efforts to address a rise in the number of kidney-failure patients by introducing measures to reimburse organ donors for their expenses and lost income. These steps were carefully calibrated to ease the burden on donors while also discouraging organ trading.

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